


Home

by sumnawaz



Category: Chicago PD (TV)
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:46:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26953828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sumnawaz/pseuds/sumnawaz
Summary: Hailey is finally back in Chicago after working with the FBI in New York, so Jay takes her on their promised pizza date.
Relationships: Jay Halstead & Hailey Upton, Jay Halstead/Hailey Upton
Kudos: 42





	Home

“Now _this_ is a pizza,” Hailey grinned as she picked up a slice, biting into it and humming in satisfaction as she chewed.

Jay couldn’t help but chuckle as he watched her eat, picking up a slice for himself as well after taking a sip of his beer. Truthfully, he wouldn’t be able to take his eyes off of her even if he tried—he was just so damn glad to see her again. “Careful—you’re drooling,” he teased with a grin.

Hailey rolled her blue eyes, wiping at her mouth with a napkin before she said, “Shut up.” Washing her bite down with her own beer, Hailey continued, “Seriously, though—New York’s a pretty city and all, but their pizza is just—it’s garbage. I ate more Chinese takeout there than I have ever before in my life.”

Raising a skeptical eyebrow with a ghost of a smirk playing across his lips, Jay asked, “Didn’t you get sick after eating Chinese after a few days?”

Hailey’s expression fell, pointing at him warningly. “We don’t talk about that,” she deadpanned, earning a full blown grin from her partner. She would rather not think about what she assumed was a mild case of food poisoning after her fourth day in New York. It hadn’t been pretty.

“Got it,” Jay nodded appeasingly before his green eyes met her blue. She noted the way his expression softened, gaze glimmering under the lights of Bartoli’s. “Seriously, though, Hails—it’s good to have you back. Riding with Voight isn’t nearly as fun as it is with you.”

She grinned, wide and dimply, though her heart danced in her chest at Jay’s words. She was intimately familiar with Jay’s sentiment; OA, the fed she was partnered with since his own was away on assignment, was a good guy and a good agent, but Hailey didn’t know him the way she knew Jay. With Jay, neither of them had to even voice their thoughts for the other to know exactly what was going on, what the plan was. The two of them were always on the same wavelength, played off each other’s backs in perfect sync. Sure, the experience of working with the FBI would help Hailey out in the long run of bettering herself as a detective, but being partnered with someone who wasn’t Jay, or even another member of Intelligence, had been different. It had taken her a moment to get a handle of it, find her balance in a new world she didn’t have much of a choice in being thrown into. She had missed Jay; missed their partnership and, well, missed him.

Hailey knew that he missed her too, but she hadn’t realized how much until last night when he surprised her at the airport.

*****

_Hailey was exhausted as she exited the terminal. The flight from New York to Chicago wasn’t long—barely three hours—but it had been a late one that she caught. Or early, depending on how you looked at it. Her flight landed at O’Hare around five-thirty in the morning, and instead of walking through the arrivals gate to see Vanessa waiting for her like she had expected, Hailey stopped short at the familiar face she hadn’t thought she’d see until a more decent time during the day._

_Just a few feet away stood Jay, a jacket on top of his Bears hoodie to fend from the familiar Chicago cold, holding a piece of paper in front of him that read “Welcome Home, Detective Upton” in his handwriting. Hailey’s lips parted to let out a short disbelieving laugh, only to later grin to mirror Jay’s own beaming smile as she approached him, suitcase dragging along behind her._

_Hailey would be lying if she said her heart wasn’t doing multiple flips, the sight of him right there in front of her as opposed to on a screen from when they FaceTimed being one that she had looked forward to since the moment she left for New York. He walked towards her as she approached him as well, noticing his usually neat hair messy under the hood of his sweatshirt, sleepy features overpowered by the grin spreading across his lips the closer the two of them got._

_She wasn’t even aware she was holding her breath until Jay stood in front of her, taller frame looming over her shorter one, and for a brief moment, Hailey was unsure of what to do. Her and Jay—they weren’t huggers. Comforting touches were one thing—but the two of them, in all of their years of partnership, hadn’t really hugged, had they? Unless they counted moments after too many drinks at Molly’s where their inhibitions were down just long enough._

_But right now, in the middle of the airport that wasn’t busy, finally seeing each other after a few weeks too many, their inhibitions were down once again._

_Hailey barely had time to register Jay’s movements until he was pulling her close, arms wrapping around her shoulders as her cheek pressed his chest, but she was quick to recover. Hailey let go of her suitcase, of all of her thoughts, and wrapped her arms around Jay’s torso, kept the space between them as minimal as possible as she returned the hug she hadn’t been aware she was craving. Her eyes shut, Jay overpowering her senses in the best way, from the warmth of his touch to the familiar cologne he wore to the steady beat of his heart under her ear._

_It was all so familiar. Achingly so. Exactly what she had been missing when she was in New York._

_Jay’s voice was low, gruff, but coated with relief and contentment as he murmured in her ear, “Welcome home, Hails.”_

_Welcome home, indeed._

*****

“Well, you know I had to come back,” Hailey responded to Jay’s comment with a teasing grin after swallowing a bite of the delicious pizza. She seriously missed deep dish. “Couldn’t let you suffer with Sarge for too long.”

Jay cracked a smile, and Hailey immediately noticed the shift in his demeanor as his gaze dropped to his plate, the smile on his face subtle and… Sad. “I knew you’d come back as soon as you said you would. Before then I, uh, wasn’t too sure.”

Hailey’s eyebrows knitted together as she looked at him, head tilting ever so slightly in confusion. “What?” she asked, wiping at her mouth. With a bewildered laugh, she asked, “Why wouldn’t you be sure?”

Jay lifted his gaze until his green eyes met her blue, and she saw the way he hesitated, reluctant to utter the words that had been weighing on his mind at one point. But the longer Hailey stared at him, unsure of where his train of thought had come from, the quicker the answer came to her head. Her forehead smoothed out as realization dawned, lips parting in understanding as her heart sunk a bit.

Shit—of course. Erin Lindsay had left to work for the FBI in New York, and her leaving had triggered Jay going down a dark path Hailey had tried her best to help him out of. Lindsay was more than Jay’s partner, though, and Hailey knew her leaving had hurt Jay—especially because Lindsay had left without so much as a warning. It was one of the reasons why when Voight told Hailey about her assignment to New York, Jay was the first person she told. Not merely out of instinct because he’s her partner, but because she didn’t want him to wake up the next day and have her gone just like Lindsay was. Hailey wouldn’t do that to Jay. So he had been her first call.

It was naive of her to think that just doing that would be enough to keep the ridiculous thought of her staying in New York out of Jay’s head. But leaving Chicago and working for the FBI had never been something on Hailey’s list, and it never would be. Her life was in Chicago, the people she loved were in Chicago. Most importantly—Jay was in Chicago. And she wasn’t going to leave him so suddenly—or ever. Not if she could help it.

Apparently, Hailey had been processing Jay’s feelings silently for too long, because he cleared his throat, briefly furrowing his eyebrows, and sat up. “I’m not comparing you to her, Hailey. I know you’re not her and the situations are completely different. I just…” He stopped, letting out a breath through a small, almost sheepish, smile as his gaze met hers. “I don’t like not having you around.”

Hailey prided herself in not letting her emotions show on the surface, especially during a case. But the heat was pooling in her cheeks and her features softened at Jay’s words, heart jumping into her throat at the sentimentality in her partner’s admission. Still, she smiled in return, the buzz of the restaurant drowning out as she told him, “It’ll take more than a temporary assignment for you to get rid of me, Halstead.”

A corner of his lips lifted, the smirk he wore boyish and charming all at once. “Never said I wanted to get rid of you, Upton,” he smoothly returned.

His green eyes met her blue, smirk turning into a smile when he noticed hers, and Hailey knew, without even saying anything, that Jay understood she wouldn’t ever be leaving him.

And why would she? She was home. Jay was home.


End file.
